My Name is
by Lazruth
Summary: She remembered nothing of her past life. She didn't need or want to. Or she thought she didn't, until she saw him, and knew he could tell her her name. Too bad he doesn't even remember her...


**This idea... was entirely by accident. Inhuman Nexus came to me with an idea that I think someone else suggested to him, and I kind of played with it. Honestly, until a day or two ago, I never even considered doing a story like this. But, here I am, writing this. Say what you want about the characters I've chosen to do for this story, but hey! It's the first of it's kind, so I don't expect it to be perfect.**

**I do, however, expect some damned points for having the courage to do this. Courage Wolf is proud of me!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach or any of it's characters, obviously. I do, admit that I am most likely going to hell for this. Want to come along?**

Hunger. It was the first thing she had been aware of when she woke up, surrounded by white sands and a black sky. She had felt it before, to be sure, but not quite like this. And it seemed that becoming aware of the hunger only served to intensify it. It hurt so much that she could barely remember what happened during those days, only that she had met other creatures, all of them strange looking and frightening. Monsters, they looked like. It hadn't mattered to her though, the only thing that did was trying to fulfill that thrice-damned hunger.

And then something happened one day. She became a part of a Gillian. Gillian, a word that she didn't know, and yet it seemed so familiar. There were voices, hundreds maybe, all screaming, all struggling not to fall into the darkness. An empty void where if they fell into it they would cease to exist. They would be gone forever, never to come back, never to _be_ ever again. She knew that's what they were doing because she was doing the same thing. And yet, she felt herself being absorbed, being overcome by another voice.

_Shut the hell up, I can't fall asleep with all of you yelling like that._

Such an odd thing to say, she thought. The voice that had said it overpowered all the other voices, even her's. But while the others eventually gave up, she continued to yell and struggle. She didn't know for how long this happened, but she refused to just disappear. And then she was on the sand.

She blinked, amazed and curious about about the feeling of sand beneath her fingers, the granules against her flesh. Then she realized she had blinked. A simple action, one that had been out of her grasp the whole time she had been in that hell of voices. She had flesh, she had feeling, _she had her life_. And then she looked up, seeing the grizzled, lazy looking person in front of her, instinctively knowing that the voice that had spoken out all that time ago about belonged to this man. Which means that... that... she wasn't quite sure, actually.

"What's your name?"

He beat her to the punch, asking the exact same question that she wanted to ask him. And what kind of man asked a girl for her name when he didn't give his first? And why did he sound so lazy? …

Wait a minute.

What _was_ her name?

She tried for several seconds to remember. She had a name, didn't she? How come she couldn't remember it? When was the last time she had even thought about that? She stayed where she was, not looking back at her companion. Eventually, he gave a sigh, apparently bored with waiting.

"Can't remember, huh?" he asked. "Well then... Lilynette." When she raised her head and gave him a questioning look, he continued. "That'll be your name from now on. Lilynette Gingerback. Congrats or Happy Birthday or whatever."

"Yeah?" she asked back, a little irritated. She didn't know this guy (_Do I?_) and here he was, giving her a name when she already had her own perfectly good name, even if she couldn't remember it? … Alright, even in her head she realized that that sounded kind of silly. "And who are you? And why am I even here? Last I remember were all those voices..."

The man gave her a long stare, seeming to mull over her questions (it was hard to tell, considering that his face never lost it's bored, half-asleep look.) before he finally sighed and gave an answer. "Coyote Starrk. Call me Starrk. And you are a part of myself. That whole time when were were part of that Gillian, and even after I became an Adjuchas and a Vasto Lorde, your annoying voice kept yelling at me. Do you have any idea how much trouble it was to get to sleep with you constantly talking like that?"

Lilynette let out a growl. "Shut up you bastard! If I'm a 'part' of you, then what the hell am I doing here in my own body?" Starrk regarded her before he lay back on the sands.

"Couple of reasons, actually. First, so that I don't have a whiny little voice in my head when I'm trying to get my couple dozen hours of sleep." He ignored his companion's shout of rage. "And... so that I'm no longer alone."

**(Years Later)**

"Starrk! Wake your lazy ass up!"

"Oof!"

And thus another day had started as usual for the two. Not long after Lilynette was 'born' again, the two had been found by a Shinigami, of all people, named Aizen. The man had offered the two of them a place in his army, where they would no longer be alone and be with others who wouldn't die just by being near them. Starrk had jumped at the chance, and with no other place to go Lilynette followed. The two had then been made into something called 'Arrancar', with Starrk being made the Primera of a group called the Espada, the ten most powerful Arrancar. Not like it affected Lilynette all that much, seeing as that as long as she was with Starrk, she wouldn't be alone.

Starrk rolled off the bed, landing on the floor and rolling up into a ball gasping for breath, both arms over his gut where Lilynette had driven her elbow into. After a bit, he managed to glare at her, annoyed that his peaceful nap had been interrupted. Again. Today.

Lilynette just shrugged off the glare, idly wondering why Starrk allowed her through his _hierro_ to hurt him. "Come on, get up you sloth! Aizen-sama will be here anytime now! What are you doing sleeping at a time like this?"

Starrk groaned and stood up, looking to be perfectly fine now. "Jeez, calm down already. I seriously doubt it's anything too important. Why don't you relax, take a nap or something." Truth be told, Starrk was a little surprised that Aizen was coming to him, not the other way around. The guy was strong, but also had an ego the size of Yammi's gut, if not bigger. Everyone came to him, he didn't go to anybody. So either this was important, or this had to do with Aizen's plan for Karakura town.

He didn't really much like the thought of the latter, to be honest. Taking only the top three Espada and their _fraccion_, while leaving the others behind, left a bad taste in the Primera's mouth. He joined this little club to be with others, not leave them behind. Ah, well. As long as he had Lilynette, and a place where he could sleep for hours, then he'd be fine. Besides, the rule in Hueco Mundo was that the weak listened to the strong, and Aizen had strength in spades.

"Take a nap?" Lilynetted huffed incredulously. "_One_ of us has to be awake in case something happens. Maybe if you slept _less_, I'd leave you alone _more._"

Starrk appeared to think deeply about that for awhile (about half a second) before he shook his head. "Nah, I like sleeping too much to do that. Keep doing a good- Grgk!" He collapsed, Lilynette having kicked the side of his knee inward.

"Good job _that_!" Lilynette snarled, leaving the room and slamming the door behind her.

Starrk sat up, not quite ready to put any weight down on the leg that the small girl had attacked. "What'd I say?"

Aizen hadn't stayed long, though Lilynette wasn't surprised. Even if the guy WAS her boss, he was damn creepy as hell. Seriously, Gin smiled as much as Aizen, but at least it was an actual _smile_, and not something like how Aizen looked. She just didn't trust the guy, even if he had gotten her and Starrk companions.

The ex-Shinigami had stopped by to drop by, of all things, files. People from Soul Society that would be a threat, how big of one, abilities of each, things like that. He had mentioned that some had been listed as "not a big threat", telling the Primera and his piece of himself that these were people that, while they _could_ be a threat, right now they were merely an annoyance and should just keep an eye out for them. As soon as Aizen left, Starrk had gone back to his room to sleep, leaving Lilynette to go through the files. Starrk may not have been worried, but she was. She had to reluctantly admit to herself that most of these people could kill her, no problem whatsoever.

Especially this guy she was looking at right now, some giant neanderthal of a man called Kenpachi. Apparently, even if this guy hadn't even learned his sword's name, he became a captain, and one of the most powerful ones as well. She almost couldn't believe what she read about the guy. Bells in his hair to give away his position and an eye-patch that constantly drained his reaitsu, and this guy _still_ managed to win almost every battle he was in? Lilynette sincerely hoped that she would never met the guy. EVER.

Sighing, she rubbed her eyes, trying to relieve the slight burning she had in them from reading for so long. And she had yet to go through all of them, which just the thought of was almost enough to make her give up. Still, all that reading had been useful. According to the files that she had gone through. There were maybe only twenty to twenty-five people she really had to worry about, the vast majority of them being captains and lieutenants. There was the occasional random surprise (this one Rukia chick was labeled as "risky", and she wasn't even a seated officer), but for the most part it was what she expected. Careful of the top two of each squad, stay close to Starrk, and she'd be fine. She gave another sigh, and reached for another file,telling herself that this would be the last one for the night. Opening it, she settled herself down to read.

_*THROB*_

Lilynette was suddenly assaulted by a rush of pain, like a knife was driven into her skull and twisted. The pain was so bad that it actually brought tears to her eyes. Forcing her eyes open, she tried to see through her tears, looking at the picture that was included in the file, which showed the shinigami in it running through some hallway with bright white walls.

*_THROB_*

Lilynette pushed herself away from the file and the table it was on, another pang of pain running through her head. No, deeper, it felt like her brain was being skewered. Collapsing to her knees, she put more strength into her grip, as if it would help alleviate the pain she was experiencing. It didn't, the throbbing only increasing in strength. And then, she saw... flashes. Pictures, images, of people she didn't know- _I do know_- and places she had never been- _that was where I-_ and why wouldn't the images stop, or at least _make sense?_ She felt her breath come in shallow gasps as she fell to her side, drool running from her open mouth, her only eye wide and unseeing.

_Come on, hurry up!_

_But I don't wanna go out to dinner!_

_I want that color dress!_

_Do I have to go to school?_

_Yeah, you BETTER run, or I'll beat you up again!_

_We're friends, silly! Why wouldn't I come to visit?_

_You're dad's weird! *giggle*_

_Wait for me, I'm not a rotten egg!_

_It's a pleasure to meet you, ****-***! Take care of me from today on, ok?_

_Who, me? I'm-_

Lilynette shot to her feet, taking deep gulps of air. Those words. What were they? Though she asked herself this, she knew that there was really only one thing they could be. She spun to the table where the file was, quickly memorizing the small amount of info there, then without another word, she opened a _garganta_ to the World of the Living.

To the one who had the key to her past.

Ichigo leaned back on his bed, wearing a pair of green sweatpants and a white undershirt, a book on his lap. He had found it earlier while going through his closet, purely by accident. When he had opened it, he had discovered it to be a photo album. That was about two hours ago, and he was only about halfway done. He would have been finished sooner, but with each picture came a large serving of nostalgia. Memories of the days before he became a substitute Shinigami. Before he had met hollows.

Before his mother died.

There had been several pictures of her, most of them with him in it. He had found the picture that his crazy-ass father had used to make that huge poster/memorial that was up on the wall in the dining room. He noted, with some bitter-sweetness, that she had the same bright, cheerful smile in all of them. She was a woman who lived every day to the fullest, and Ichigo wondered, in the back of his mind, if she would have been able to keep that smile if she had known she was going to die that one rainy day.

He shook away those thoughts and turned the page. And froze.

_Who is that?_ It was a picture of him, sitting in a sandbox crying. The reason for that was clear, a girl having the young boy in a headlock, a huge grin on her face, her other hand outstretched giving the v-sign. But it wasn't Tatsuki, like he expected. This girl... he couldn't quite-

_*SMASH_*

Ichigo was knocked off his bed, startled by the glass from the window shattering into pieces. He went one way, and the photo album went another. Out the corner of his eye, he saw a figure grab the album from the air. When whoever the person was landed, they started flipping through the pages rapidly. Ichigo was on his feet in an instant, reaching for his deputy badge, which had started screaming like it did when a hollow was near.

As his eyes landed on the figure, the first thing he noticed was the strange helmet looking thing on their head. Bone white with a horn on one side, and a stump of one on the other. What looked to be light-greenish hair poked out from underneath, with one side of the helmet coming down over the figure's eye like an eye patch of sorts, decorated with flames. The clothing seemed to suggest that the person was female, if only because he didn't want to imagine ANY guy wearing short shorts and a vest that barely covered the chest. Before he could yell at the girl, or even go into his Shinigami body, the girl looked up, and all thoughts in his brain ground to a halt.

_She's... from that picture..._

Just when Ichigo was starting to get his thoughts back into working order, the girl opened up her mouth, the words spoken in a scared, confused, and perhaps... hopeful tone.

"Ichi-kun?"


End file.
